Your All-Inclusive Guide to Getting New Dentures

Your teeth are designed to provide you with a lifetime of service, but life may have thrown you a curveball, causing the loss of all or some of your teeth. If this is the case, you’re in good company — studies show that a whopping 178 people in the United States are missing at least one tooth and 40 million are missing all of their teeth. To fill the gap, we offer many options, including full and partial dentures.

At Innovative Dental Ideas, under the experienced care of Dr. James Butler, we provide a full array of tooth replacement options to our patients in Hilliard, Ohio. From dental implants to dentures, we’ve got your dental care needs covered.

If you’re thinking of choosing dentures, here’s what you need to know.

Why dentures?

As we mentioned in the beginning, your teeth are tough and designed to last a lifetime. But tooth decay, trauma, and gum disease may have other plans, causing the loss of all, or some, of your teeth. If this is the case, full or partial dentures are a great replacement option, allowing you to chew, speak, and smile with relative ease.

In fact, the days of wood and bone false teeth are long gone, and modern dentures are made with only the strongest materials that mimic your real teeth in both form and function. The prosthetic teeth are typically made from porcelain, which is a strong medium that features the same opalescence as your teeth.

These replacement teeth are attached to an acrylic material that’s designed to fit in seamlessly, and comfortably, with your gums.

Getting prepped for dentures

To prepare your mouth for dentures, we need to make sure that your compromised teeth are fully eradicated from your mouth and that your gums are healthy. Depending upon the extent of disease and decay, this may take several visits and a little patience as we clear away the damaged teeth and make sure your gums are in the pink of health and able to support dentures.

We may also use this time to insert dental implants into your mouth, which provide superior support for your dentures. These implants feature a titanium post, which we insert into your jawbone, allowing your bone tissue to fuse the post in place.

This innovative technique means that your dentures will be secured firmly in place, and you’re able to rely less on adhesives. Implant-supported dentures also allow you to chew even tough foods with more confidence.

Tricks for getting used to dentures

While dentures fill the place of your missing teeth admirably, they can still feel foreign when you first get them, and they take a little time to get used to. It’s important that you practice patience during this adjustment period as you figure out how to best chew and speak with these oral appliances in place.

There are a few great tricks we’ve learned over the years that can help speed up the process, such as singing to get used to speaking with dentures. Singing is more fluid and easier than speech, so go ahead and sing in the shower or your car with your new dentures to get used to them. You’ll find that speech will come more easily after singing your heart out.

As well, you may want to incorporate cheek exercises into your early denture regimen. With replacement teeth, your mouth needs to relearn how to chew and swallow and your cheek muscles play an important role. So to offset any soreness or fatigue in your cheeks during your adjustment period, try exercising your cheeks before you get your dentures and during the early days of use.

Your teeth may be straight and even, but your smile isn’t complete until it’s sparkling white. Home whitening methods and DIY kits don’t seem to be making a difference, and you’re considering going to the dentist – but is in-office teeth whitening safe?

Dental implants are becoming an increasingly popular option for replacing teeth — about half a million implants are placed each year in the United States. To ensure its stability, you may need a bone graft to get the most out of your dental implant.